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Although modernization theories of nationalism have stressed the instrumental role of technology in the forging of nations they have neglected how technology itself became a fundamental element of a new shared national culture. Taking the case of the city of Lisbon during the second half of the 19th century this paper aims to suggest that technological artifacts, like steam engines, ports or buildings, assumed the nature of national icons ready to be consumed by urban masses. It also stresses the significance of mass events celebrating the capital city reforms and improvements in a society with high levels of illiteracy. The Portuguese example thus expands its relevance beyond the local context for it is expected that it may offer new hints on how to think about technology in countries depicted in the historiography exclusively by its backwardness.

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This paper explores the role of scientists in the building of fascist regimes in Italy and Portugal by focusing on plant geneticists' participation in the Italian and Portuguese wheat wars for bread self-sufficiency. It looks closely at the work undertaken by Nazareno Strampelli at the National Institute of Genetics for Grain Cultivation (Italy) and by António Sousa da Câmara at the National Agronomic Experiment Station (Portugal), both of whom took wheat as their prime experimental object of genetics research. The main argument is that the production of standardized organisms—the breeder's elite seeds—in laboratory spaces is deeply entangled with their circulation through extended distribution networks that allowed for their massive presence in Italian and Portuguese landscapes such as the Po Valley and the Alentejo. The narrative pays particular attention to the historical development of fascist regimes in the two countries, advancing the argument that breeders' artifacts were key components of the institutionalization of the new political regimes.

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